#''I'm gonna remind you that it's been 4 years but I'm still a Mexican''

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Finally watching the Tommy and Quackity video since I'm getting some food ready and can't look at the subtitles on Pac's stream while I'm doing that, and man :') It's nice hearing Quackity immediately say "Hey, I don't do that anymore" when Tommy tries to initiate an old sorta uncomfortable bit using "Mexican" accents (it's also nice hearing Tommy be like "yeah that felt vaguely offensive when I used to do that as a 16 year old")

[thethingything]

hi! do you have a favorite kind of bug? if so, what is it?

I have several that I really like so I'm gonna make a list of them! they're not really in any particular order, they're just kind of a group of favourites. I think this is gonna be mostly lepidoptera lol.

1. Sphingidae just in general, but especially Elephant Hawkmoths, Death's Head Hawkmoths, and the Pacific Green Sphinx. the two brown caterpillars we had last year were Elephant Hawkmoths and I still can't believe we actually got to raise some

(image sources: Elephant Hawkmoth, Death's Head Hawkmoth, Pacific Green Sphinx)

2. Lycaenidae are also one where it's just a whole family of lepidoptera we like (a friend mentioned them and we looked them up and were like "oh they're amazing" and they quickly became a favourite). I especially like the subfamily Polyommatinae (the Blues), with some of my favourites being the Friday's Blue, Melissa Blue, Holly Blue, and Western Pygmy-Blue. a lot of them have really interesting interactions with ants, such as relying on them for protection, but I know at least one species (the Large Blue) actually eats ants as a caterpillar

(image sources: Friday's Blue, Melissa Blue, Holly Blue, Western Pygmy-Blue)

3. Hesperiidae, also known as skippers, are another one where I love them just in general but I think the Fiery Skipper is probably one of my favourites. they're just very cute and they kind of remind me of hawkmoths but they're in the superfamily Papilionoidea so they're actually a type of butterfly

(image source)

4. the Sargasso Emerald is one of my favourites just because I think it's a cool little dude. look at this funky guy

(image source)

5. the Vapourer/Rusty Tussock is another one of the species we raised last year and I didn't know much about them before raising one but they have very distinctive looking caterpillars and the adults are sexually dimorphic to the point of looking like completely different species. the caterpillars are known to eat a huge variety of plants which is really convenient when it comes to raising them. I also love tussock caterpillars in general because they're all so fluffy and funky looking

(image sources: male Vapourer, female Vapourer, caterpillar)

6. I feel like I should include cicadas on the list because I just think they're really cool and I'm fascinated by periodical cicadas especially

(image sources: aberrant Cassin's 17-year Cicada, Common Cicada)

7. given that we're called the Ant System I think I'm contractually obligated to include at least one ant and I want to introduce everyone to the absolute little weirdos that are honeypot ants. some members of the colony store food in their abdomens and then regurgitate that for the other ants when needed. I think they're just fascinating little guys

(image sources: Mexican Honeypot Ants, Myrmecocystus)

8. I almost forgot to include these little guys but carpet beetles are going on the list because I see them a lot and I think they're pretty cute little guys

(image sources: adults, larva)

anyway I feel like this is a good list but I've probably also missed so many species that I absolutely adore and I keep stumbling across new ones that are really cool.

I've also been fixating on aberrant lepidoptera recently which isn't really a favourite kind of insect so much as just me being fascinated by all the ones where the colours or patterns are different to what you'd expect for that species

[mistbornhero]

I would love to hear about Mexican restaurants, Mexican food, regions of food, and Mexico's chain restaurant! :D I'm always interested in learning more. Take your time though, no need to rush with explaining~

Okay, so this will rely a lot on personal experience and discussions with my parents. Important context things:

I’m from Queretaro, Queretaro

lived there about half of my life? I’d have to count

Central-ish mexico, close to mexico city

 I also lived in Linares, Nuevo Leon 

lived there two years, I was like 9

Buuut food is one of those things that sticks with you

Linares is a tiny, tiny town with like 5 restaurants

Seriously, want a burger? Drive to Monterrey

Or wait for that Carls’ Jr bus to drop by lmao

North of mexico, close to Texas

My parents are both from Mexico City

I’ve visited a lot of other states/cities. Not enough to know everything, but enough to know that everywhere is different.

Gonna put emphasis on this: I don’t know everything want to tell me I’m wrong? Go ahead. I’ll be happy to know more about my own country, I miss it so much sometimes.

The easiest difference to point out is that when in Mexico, it’s a pretty safe bet that everything in a flour tortilla is from the North. It’s a thing.

Hard shell tacos are absolutely not a thing anywhere I know of and google tells me Taco Bell invented it or something.

Let’s start with the easy thing: burritos, pictured above are the kind I’ve had (1,3) and picture 2 is Moes, because there’s this guy who’s been saying it’s the best place ever and I guess it’s on my mind for a quick example lmao

In Queretaro, you hardly ever see burritos being sold anywhere, and if you do it is buried under everything else you know is good, so you hardly ever ask for it. Ask someone in Queretaro who hasn’t really gone to the north and they’ll probably tell you that burritos are most likely this weird American invention they’ve never seen in a restaurant until their rise to popularity on TV, because that does kinda affect things.

However, go to Nuevo Leon, and burritos are everywhere. Go to someone’s house? They’ll probably offer you one to eat. By that I mean a flour tortilla with fried beans with maybe a side of salsa, but that’s optional because it’s a burrito. Go to a taco place and they sell fancier burritos, usually keeping the beans because they’re essential to the burrito and add different meats. Go to an actual restaurant and you get it with a side of rice and more beans, or guacamole. (See the pictures on either side)

I never in my time there saw one with rice on it. Rice is usually a side dish, and when I say taco place you can be sure I mean a place that pretty much only does tacos lmao. But I also know, like I pointed out before, I don’t know everything. Could be a thing in like Chihuahua for all I know. They probably sell them at Chillis now, but Chillis is american so like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mooooooooooooving on.

Reminder: we use mostly corn tortillas in central/south mexico. So when I say tacos are about what is inside them I really, really mean it. Almost every taco stand will be making their own tortillas on the spot, most of them so quickly that it’s pretty amazing. And you can also get them in color! Not everywhere, tbh, that’s mostly in fancier places, or if you’re lucky, because they’re awesome. Dropping this here so you can see the pretty variety:

Tacos.

Oh, god, tacos. There’s so many different kinds. So many places. I cannot narrow this down. This is where we really get into what I said about things being from places and regions. Right here I’m just gonna focus on Queretaro and pick 4 types/places because fuck vague 9 year old me memories, ok? Also see the thing about there being like 5 restaurants there lmao (one might get a honorary mention tho)

If you’re by some miracle going there, you may take this as a rec list lmao

Okay, back to tacos. I don’t know where to start. Figured it out, images in order of paragraph, tried to link the places, too. These are just Taco Places, specializing in tacos

Say you want to go to the taco cart in front of the shopping center (for anyone Fabi Jana, they’re soooo good) They have tacos de guisos (stew tacos, I guess), they’ve got amazing  chicharron, moronga, tbh smol me really liked their potatoes and cheese one and they can make anything into a quesadilla. They’ve got a stand off to the side with fresh orange juice and a cooler with sodas. There’s like two places to sit. I think when I was little they had the salsas and the beans out on the table with lemons and napkins but they don’t anymore. There’s still a choice of like 4 different salsas.

Single corn tortilla

Stews

Possible quesadillas

Great beans

4+ salsas

Fresh orange juice

Would I put rice here? No (I don’t think they even sell it?)

Beans? Depends on which type, but no, it’s a side

Cheese? Yes, note it’s not cheddar/american, idk what it is

Lettuce? No

It’s completely different than if you want tacos de basura (which does, in fact translate to trash tacos) where the cool thing is that you don’t actually know what you’re getting. There’s beef and bacon and sausage and who even knows tbh. It’s a bit like Durangos discada but not quite. (no site or facebook for them lol)

corn tortilla, you can ask for double

who really knows???

lots of salsas, i don’t really remember

Would I put rice here? No (I don’t think they even sell it?)

Beans? Nah

Cheese? Not really the kind?

Lettuce? Why not

Or maybe what you want is a smoothie and tacos de canasta. And for these, you would go to La Capilla (they’ve got an actual website and more stores than I remember lmao) and these were so good, and they’re kinda like the stew tacos in that you get to pick the thing, but also v different

single corn tortilla

kinda greasy tbh

squisheeeeed

I remember like three salsas?

Smothies :D

Would I put rice here? No

Beans

Cheese? Sure (the cheese one is already really good tho)

Lettuce? Maybe?

Want something that feels more like a generalized restaurant maybe try El Pata, there’s mixed opinions, some people say it’s too commercial and it kinda sucks. But I like it lmao (holy shit they’ve grown so much more???? wtf I still remember when they were a tiny stand) So for them I’d go to get a gringa which I was able to get while I lived in tennessee, but it’s basically a flour tortilla with cheese, al pastor, and depending on where you are pineapple. (okay, uh, it;s not on their menu now, I give up on this place) THEy have amazing agua de Horchata though, so maybe go for that lmao

Double tortilla

Trompo

Pretty much any meat tbh they’ve also got stews

They have this thing with like ten mini cups of different salsas on it

Agua de Horchata

Would I put rice here? Nah

Beans? Depends on which type, but not really

Cheese? Yes, note it’s not cheddar/american, (they have this chicharron de queso very good)

Lettuce? maybe

!Pineapple? yeah

Jumping cities to Linares the thing I remember the most was this Taco Pirata (Pirate Taco :D yes) and I don;t think i’d find it in google, but I used to swear it was the Biggest Taco ever and then went back like 5 years later and they were just regular big. It was flour tortilla and meat and avocado and beans and a lot of cheese lol so yes, a burrito. North of Mexico. No bullet points due to vague memories

And let’s jump again for my favorite place in Mexico City because it deserves to be mentioned. El Borrego Viudo is amazing, okay? It’s open all day every day ever since my mom was a kid. You get these packages with like 5 tacos and they are hella smol and soooo goood that once I ate like 5 of the packages and didn’t even notice. They’ve also got this really good drink called Tepache and it deserves

double tortilla

smol

I don’t think I ever knew

bistec probably

basics? so a few

plus cilantro and cebolla, forgot to add those in all the others

Tepache!!

Would I put rice here? No thanks

Beans? No.

Cheese? Nah

Lettuce? maybe

.............................

It’s now past 3am, i’ve been at this on and off for like two hours lmao

Didn’t get to more food than tacos, which is where Smaller Regional variety comes in, or the chains (basically Sanborns and mayyyyybe, just mayyyybe VIPS, but they’re only in big cities) I’ll do a post some other day.